Writing Ideas

Where do writers get their ideas? From potatoes, of course! The Education Girlz transformed ordinary potatoes from their kitchen larder into characters full of personality. Nani the mermaid potato attended the prestigious University of the Pacific where she majored in "swim-ology". Minna the tennis champion potato attended Standford on an athletic scholarship. Both of these potatoes had distinguished careers and many published papers demonstrating the 6 traits of writing: voice (lots of it), conventions, word choice, organization, ideas, and sentence fluency. Unfortunately the potato pals sprouted and attracted flies, and so they were laid to rest after a very moving ceremony and a published obituary. RIP potato inspirations.

Minna the tennis playing potato rules the court!

Nani the mermaid potato enjoys her aquatic habitat.

Nani's casket was decorative and festive.

The sad day arrived and Lauren read her potato eulogy.
Minna was laid to rest in a practical orange shoe box
that sports a colorful tombstone and witty epitaph.

Koko the Gorilla and Haiku

Koko the gorilla can understand over 1,000 words in sign language and 2,000 words in spoken English, but did you know that she also loves haiku? In fact, for her 40th birthday, Koko held a haiku contest in which The Education Girlz entered (belatedly).

cute cats and kittens

tumbling with Koko-love

expressing feelings

-Lauren

Koko with her kitten All Ball

A pinch of kindness

Stands out for Koko’s passion

Just like having fun 

-Samantha

You can learn more about Koko and science at http://www.koko.org/index.php 

Art Across the Curriculum

Lauren researched the white tailed deer before etching it into copper.

Samantha wrote a research paper about the giant panda before her art project.
Did you know that President Howard Taft and the giant panda both weigh 300 pounds!

Science provides opportunity to create art.

Even lunch time brings art into our classroom!

Today Mrs. Henry, our art teacher, came! We continued with our copper animal project by using screws and nails to imprint on the copper sheet. We have also explored portrait drawing, water color, and radial designs.

Samantha the Dripper!

Painting like Paul Klee

Dragonflies and Big Bugs

Dave Rogers's praying mantis stalking us!
Photo courtesy of Jennifer Henry

Today we learned all about dragonflies and damselflies (odonates) at the Desert Botanical Garden. We learned that dragonflies are different than damselflies. Damselflies have their wings back and on the side of them, and dragonflies have their wings in front of them. We also learned that damselflies have skinny and long abdomens; on the other hand, dragonflies have short and stout abdomens. We finished off the day by eating chocolate covered crickets and chocolate covered larvae!

You can see more of Dave Rogers art at http://www.big-bugs.com/.  See a dragonfly nymph hatching here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rxBVE_t5OU&feature=grec_index&noredirect=1

Demonstrating proper dragonfly netting technique.

Dragonfly art

Dragonfly nymphs collected from the pond.

Pond scooping.

Samantha is eating a chocolate covered cricket! YUM!

Pirates!!!

AAAAAAAAARRGGH!

Today we went to the Arizona Science Center to learn about pirates. We made astrolabes, compasses, eye patches, sun dials, and wind vanes. Do you know why pirates wear eye patches? They wear them because one eye is already used to the dark, so when they go to the bottom of the ship it will be easy for them to see. We also had to learn how to tie knots. No "monkey fist" knots for us! Do you know what the new pirate movie is rated? ... It's rated AARRGGHH!

The 300 year old Whydah bell.

Learning Through Measuring

Want to know a exciting and tasty way to practice adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators? Cooking, of course! Cups: 1/4, 1/3, and 1/2 can all be added or subtracted in a variety of ways. Plus, you can eat the results!

The cooks!

Bruschetta!

Nature is the best classroom!

Headless rabbit

Today a hawk dropped a headless rabbit right in front of the girls as they were walking home! The hawk lingered nearby, occasionally swooping down to investigate his prey. We hoped to learn about nature's decomposers over the next few days, but the rabbit was disposed of by the gardeners. What a great first-hand experience of our ecosystem.

Bird of prey

A roadrunner running by the classroom!